Great finish to regular season

November 20, 2010|By Dave Fairbank

WILLIAMSBURG — — Twenty-five minutes before William and Mary and Richmond kicked off their annual I-64 taffy pull, Villanova did the Tribe a major solid.

The Wildcats unexpectedly bounced CAA leader and presumptive No. 1 playoff seed Delaware in Newark. That opened the door for the Tribe to claim a share of the conference title and the accompanying automatic NCAA playoff berth with a win against the Spiders.

Not that William and Mary required extra motivation Saturday. Already in front of the Tribe was a chance to solidify a playoff berth, and to erase the taste of the previous week's defensive bed-wetting at James Madison.

Oh, and the fact that no one in William and Mary's locker room ever had beaten Richmond.

Three hours later, the Tribe's 41-3 back-alley job over the 18th-ranked Spiders provided a fitting conclusion to as satisfying a regular season as they've experienced in these parts in quite a while.

William and Mary endured injuries at critical positions and uncertainty and several potholes along the way. Yet the team comfortably awaits Sunday's playoff selection announcement, in which it's all but assured a week off and at least a couple of home games when the playoffs begin next weekend.

"That speaks a lot about what the assistant coaches and the players have done," head coach Jimmye Laycock said. "It really does. I don't think you can emphasize that enough, what they did, everybody did, about coming around and coming back to work every day.

"Whatever happened, happened, and we learned from it. Every time we had a setback, we learned from it. We didn't hang our heads. Nobody hung their heads. Nobody complained. Nobody said, 'Why us? We can't catch a break.' We never worried about break, we never worried about luck. We worried about work, and that's all we did."

It might seem unusual to talk about most satisfying seasons just one year after a team that set defensive records earned a trip to the national semifinals and was two points from playing for the title.

But that team lost two NFL draft picks from its defensive line, a top-shelf defensive back and a resourceful, playmaking quarterback.

The Tribe's 2010 edition had questions on defense and at quarterback, where injuries ultimately forced Laycock to use four different players at the game's most important position.

A defense that relies on the collective rather than stars, and a patient quarterback who overcame multiple injuries were at their best on Saturday.

The Tribe allowed just 263 yards to an offensively challenged Richmond team that's experienced its own quarterback adversity this season. This just one week after JMU gashed W&M for 266 yards rushing when everyone in the stadium knew what the Dukes were going to do.

Mike Callahan waited five years for his opportunity to run the Tribe offense. After enduring two separations to his throwing shoulder, he worked his way back into the lineup recently, and on Saturday delivered a performance that stands alongside any quarterback in the W&M record book.

He was accurate (17-for-22 for 331 yards and two touchdowns). He was smart. He was aggressive. He extended plays with his feet. Though he'll never be mistaken for Cam Newton athletically, at one point in the third quarter he scooted for 12 yards on an option keeper to extend a drive that ended in a field goal.

Callahan engineered an offense that racked up 616 yards, the program's most in four years. From the middle of the second quarter until Laycock pulled him early in the fourth quarter, the Tribe scored on five of six possessions and totaled 404 yards. That against a Richmond defense that had allowed an average of 288 yards in its previous five games.

"With any game we go into, we're trying to score on every single drive," Callahan said. "Whether we're playing Richmond or North Carolina or VMI. Tonight, I just felt like we really took advantage of our opportunities."

The Tribe concluded the regular season by beating all four ranked opponents it faced, including three in the top 10. Wins against Villanova, Delaware and New Hampshire got the Tribe to the brink of the CAA title before the stumble versus James Madison.

With a helping hand from 'Nova and a signature performance against its chief rival, the Tribe sits atop the toughest FCS conference in the country.

"The fact that we can be co-champions," Laycock said. "We can put that banner up, we can put that sign up, and we can wear that ring, and I promise you we're going to do all three."

Dave Fairbank can be reached at 247-4637 or by e-mail at dfairbank@dailypress.com. For more from Fairbank, read his blog at dailypress.com/fromthetarpit.